Badminton: Thai star Kunlavut stuns Axelsen to clinch India Open title

NEW DELHI – Thailand’s rising star Kunlavut Vitidsarn stunned top seed Viktor Axelsen to clinch the India Open badminton title with a 22-20, 10-21, 21-12 victory in Sunday’s final.

In the women’s singles, South Korea’s An Se-young beat world No. 1 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in New Delhi to avenge her loss at the Malaysia Open final on Jan 15.

Kunlavut, who stood out as the 21-year-old former junior world champion, got past the Danish ace and world No. 1 for the first time in seven attempts.

Kunlavut, seeded eighth, proved his semi-final victory over Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia and quarter-final win over Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew were not unexpected as he made Axelsen work for every point and won most of the long rallies.

“From my earlier losses against Viktor, I had learnt that if I could engage him in long rallies and take the match to the decider then I have a chance to win,” said Kunlavut, who lost the World Championships final to Axelsen last August.

“The plan was adapting as we played along. I played without much pressure, but the main plan was to attack. I gave it whatever I had. I’ve lost to him last six times. It is the best match I’ve played.”

Axelsen, who won the Malaysia Open title, bounced back after a close opening game, but Kunlavut kept his calm to win his first major Super Series crown since the German Open (Super 300) in 2022. He also won the 2021 SEA Games singles gold.

The 29-year-old Axelsen, who pulled out of the Indonesia Masters shortly after the final, urged officials to keep players’ health in mind when scheduling back-to-back tournaments in different time zones.

The Dane won a record seven Super Series titles in 2022. He said: “There are so many tournaments on the World Tour now. You can’t play everything and perform well all year long. Having a 5-6 hour flight, going from Malaysia then flying all the way to India across a time zone, and flying back in same time zone, when you look at the health, it’s not good and hopefully we can do better.”

An bounced back from a game down to beat Yamaguchi 15-21, 21-16, 21-12 in a 62-minute battle of the Super 750 event.

Yamaguchi, who was the top seed and had beaten An in Kuala Lumpur just over a week ago, conceded she made too many errors.

“In the first game I controlled the rallies and so did my opponent but, from the second game, An increased her movement speed,” Yamaguchi said through an interpreter.

Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino won the mixed doubles title, while Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida won the women’s doubles crown. China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang took the men’s doubles title. AFP